Understanding Computer Operating Systems

Operating System or commonly abbreviated OS, the software system charged with the control and management of hardware and basic operations of a computer system. This includes the management run the application software such as word processing programs, multimedia players, and so on.

Operating System is the first software contained in the computer's memory when the computer starts. While other software will run after running the operating system first. After the operating system will do service to the software. Some of the services normally done by the operating system,:

• Access Disk.
• Memory Management, Computer Operating System ensure other software applications can use memory, input and output to other devices, and have access to the file system.
• Scheduling Task, If there are several programs running concurrently operating system will set a precise timetable, so that these programs do not crash and can be run according to procedure.
• Settings user interface.
• etc...

Some of these tasks should be done by software. However, with the operating system, the software does not need to do these tasks. Part of the operating system that perform core tasks is called the kernel.

The operating system generally consists of several parts:

• Boot mechanism, that is put into the Kernel Memory.
• Kernel, which is the core of an Operating system.
• Command interpreter or shell, which served to read input from the user.
• Libraries, as a provider and a standard set of basic functions that can be called by other applications.
• Driver, useful for interacting with external hardware.

There are many kinds of operating systems that we can find in the market. Some are very expensive, there are also a few of them distributed free of charge. Some examples of computer operating systems, include:

• Windows
• Linux
• MacOS (Macintosh Operating System)
• Solaris
• Android